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$4 Million for Chess, but With a Catch

As the election for the top positions in the World Chess Federation nears, both of the campaigns have promised money to finance chess programs and tournaments around the world.

Kirsan Ilyzumzhinov, the incumbent president, was the first to make pledges. Last month, he said that he would commit $1 million over the next 10 years to finance a series of 10 tournaments in Asia to honor Florencio Campomanes, his predecessor as president. Campomanes, who was from the Philippines, died in May at the age of 83.

Ten days later, Ilyumzhinov offered another pledge, this time for $500,000, to finance two tournaments in the Caribbean and in Latin America.

Now Anatoly Karpov, the former world champion who is running against Ilyumzhinov, says he has lined up $4 million from sponsors to support chess.

The first $100,000 was announced several days ago and is “to promote chess in Central America,” but exactly what that means, or how it is to be done, is not described. An additional $300,000 is for the Balkans over the next four years ($75,000 a year). Again, there are no specifics.

Saturday, a statement sent to Chessbase.com, a chess news Web site, said that the Karpov campaign had now lined up a total of $4 million from “commercial interests.” The statement does not give any details about who the backers might be or how the money might be distributed, other than that it would be done over the four years of Karpov’s term as president. It also says that the money would be in addition to financing the world championship or similar high-profile events.

The statement from Karpov concludes, “It is time to get back to the era when major corporations bid competitively to invest in chess and to break this dependency on unreliable sources. It is time to stop begging for money and to put chess back on the map, bigger and better than ever.”

As of Sunday morning, the statement does not appear on Karpov’s campaign Web site and was evidently sent to no other Web sites or organizations.

The rhetoric is in step with previous attacks by the Karpov campaign: That Ilyumzhinov’s sources of money are not known and are unreliable and that he cannot be trusted. But Karpov is essentially saying the same thing: “Trust me and I will deliver millions of dollars in sponsorships.”

Though his statement does not say so explicitly, these commitments seem to be tied to his election. Karpov is quoted as saying to the sponsors, “We told them that starting this year, chess was going to be a huge opportunity with a new FIDE administration that would take commercial sponsorship seriously.”

The money may never be delivered, if the campaign Web site of Ilyumzhinov is to be believed. He now claims to have the support of 75 countries; there are approximately 170 members of the federation, with each getting one vote. So he may be close to locking up enough support to be re-elected.

Of course, the votes have not been cast or counted. The election is in September at the Chess Olympiad in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia.

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In its 1,500-year history, chess has imbedded itself in the world's culture and vocabulary. Ideas, terms and images from the game have long been used as proxies for intelligence and complexity. But chess is more than a diversion. Thousands worldwide play professionally or earn a living by teaching it to children. The Internet has transformed the game, making it easy for players anywhere to find an opponent day or night. Chess computers, originally developed to test the bounds of artificial intelligence, now play better than grandmasters. This blog will cover tournaments and events, trends and developments. Reader comments and questions will be more than welcome.

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